The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT IS tearful that Prisons in Zimbabwe are generally overcrowded and dilapidated.

Prisoners are reportedly not given sufficient food, although the lack of food is not reportedly life-threatening.

Prisons have poor sanitary conditions and prisoners are vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnangagwa ignored prisoners in Zimbabwe living under horrible conditions with no running water and face masks as the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chikurubi Maximum Prison, the country’s biggest jail, was unfit for human habitation. The infamous jail must be closed.

Prisoners in Zimbabwe are living under harsh and life-threatening conditions owing to a cocktail of challenges faced by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services. Prison conditions were harsh and life-threatening due to overcrowding, food shortages, and inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care, read the report.

“The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) struggled to provide adequate food and sanitary conditions and worked with faith-based and community organisations to help address these problems. Conditions in prisons, jails, and detention centres were often harsh. There were approximately 20,000 prisoners, spread across 46 main prisons and 26 satellite prisons. Prison guards occasionally beat and physically abused prisoners. Chikurubi Prison must be turned into a museum. It is not worth human habitation. The failure Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF government must resign from power.

KUDZAI CHIKOWORE

London.

March 2021.